Scope and Content

Papers relating to the history and topochronography of Slapton, near Strete, Dartmouth, Devon. Contains two typescripts of ‘The topochronography of Slapton’, 1943 [unpublished], containing chapters on the civil, ecclesiastical and natural history of Slapton; also a file of manuscript notes on pirates and shipwrecks on the Devon coast, n.d.; also a file of miscellaneous manuscript notes on the history of Slapton, including letters, jottings, notes, family trees, plans, photographs, compliment slips, envelopes and brochures for the Manor House Hotel and Royal Sands Hotel, Slapton Sands [destroyed during the Second World War], and also maps and cuttings, 1940-1963.

Administrative / Biographical History

(Howard) John Yallop was born in 1918 and attended Allhallows School, Honiton, Devon. He then read Chemistry at University College, University of Oxford, where he gained a BSc and MA. On completing his studies at Oxford, he then began his career as a scientist for the Ministry of Small Supply (1942-1947), before moving onto the Ministry of Defence (1947-1957) where he helped to develop the atom bomb. He then became Principal Scientific Officer at the Home Office (1957-1973), specialising in the criminal use of explosives. From 1973 to 1982 he worked as an independent consultant forensic scientist, returning to his native Devon, where he became involved with the Allhallows Museum, Honiton United Charities and Allhallows Charity. From 1974, he was the honorary curator and chairman of the management committee for Allhallows Museum, Honiton, Devon (a museum of lace-making and local history), during which period he did much work to improve the museum. He read for a PhD in the Economic History Department at the University of Exeter between 1983-1988.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1973, and a Chartered Chemist (CChem) in 1980. He was awarded an OBE in 1974. He died in December 1993, and was married with a son and a daughter.